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Wel... I never liked the original character back in the 80s but I must admit that the staction looks good to me. After Clamp Champ and Snout Spout that makes three characters I found stupid/boring who've become cool.

Thanks to you 4HM for doing a great job again

Even though he's not the best looking guy in wave 5... Squeeze is just to good to be possibly overcome by the cowboy.

May the vicious demon armies of hell lose tracks on their way to your home.

Do you think that Rio Blast's bionic arm can condense down into a regular hand like MAA in the 2kx cartoon? Or is his arm always a cannon?

Any word from the 4H on what they envision?

Well, he has two guns on either side of his belt to 'draw', just like a cowboy would. Only way he could do that would be with both hands. So I would think that the big cannon is not always part of his arm.

Robot Cowboy Zombie

Rio, Snout Spout and Extendar were probably my favorite good guys as a kid, and I think the new Snout Spout is great.

But RIO BLAST GOT REMADE AS A ROBOT-COWBOY-ZOMBIE.

He just looks creepy, and his weaponry got recreated as a bunch of manga-esque overkill. I'll agree that Rio's old design hasn't aged well, but it's a sad thing that those old guns looked WAY more appropriate for a figure that size than the new ones do.

I was really hoping that the 4H would figure out ways of making the various waves of the old toy line be more stylistically consistent in the new line, with Rio Blast a prime example of a character that needed to be better integrated with the rest of line. Instead, we got a Metal Gear Solid knockoff that actually looks WORSE.

The design of Rio Blast is indeed a master stroke of genious and he looks great!!
BUT....
They gotta loose that mustasch man or just adjust it to a goatee. He does look like a Tom of Finland type character. He blantantly something from a gay comic. It's so obvious it almost makes me think that this was quite deleborate especially with those high cheekbokes and lips?!
If he is indeed meant to be the gay cowboy character, then that's cool but if not then I really think they need to sort it out before production and adding a bit of hair to the chin would be easy enough to do.

Now I don't know if the 4HM can slighty alter stuff before the production run and I'm hoping they showed us these to get feedback before production?
But it's really annoying that with only the slightest changes they could please more people.

Rio was one of my favourite characters and I'd hate to have to get looking like something he's not supposed to.

Addition: Mick Bock's hair idea would be another way to de-village people him!

I really donīt understand why the mustache should be a problem for Rio. I mean this is by far the only cowboy-esque character in MotU and exactly that dude is supposed to not have a mustache. Really weird. But on the other hand, itīs actually quite cool that people nitpick on it because it shows how good this statue really is since a real point of critisism can be found then something totally irreelevant to dispute about like a mustache.

The design of Rio Blast is indeed a master stroke of genious and he looks great!!
BUT....
They gotta loose that mustasch man or just adjust it to a goatee. He does look like a Tom of Finland type character. He blantantly something from a gay comic. It's so obvious it almost makes me think that this was quite deleborate especially with those high cheekbokes and lips?!
If he is indeed meant to be the gay cowboy character, then that's cool but if not then I really think they need to sort it out before production and adding a bit of hair to the chin would be easy enough to do.

Now I don't know if the 4HM can slighty alter stuff before the production run and I'm hoping they showed us these to get feedback before production?
But it's really annoying that with only the slightest changes they could please more people.

Rio was one of my favourite characters and I'd hate to have to get looking like something he's not supposed to.

Addition: Mick Bock's hair idea would be another way to de-village people him!

Village people or not, What about he mans pose in front of Castle Grayskull?(Old version). Thats much more "out of a gay comic" in my opinion.
Anyway i really like the badass cowboy look on Rio Blast! And I would not be happy if they changed it to a goatee!

I never knew the character as a kid, I never liked the idea of the character when I heard about him, I never thought I would like a redesign of that character - but I do! I think it may be still a bit too much Western (the spurs), but there's just too much to like about it!

Ok so all this talk about Rio Blast's hair got me thinking how would he actually look like with longer hair so I took the time to play with photoshop and add him some hair.

Here is how he would have looked like:

that is an awesome version of his hair. it totally goes with the fact that he's a sheriff out in the desert. but i hate, hate the new arm. the fact that his face looks like maa doesn't bother me so much (as long as they aren't related). i cannot stress how that arm bothers me, unlike most people on the org, i was into these later waves of figures & i always though of rio blast like this:
then this guy came along:
we already have guys with 1 large arm/appendage (clawful, fisto, jitsu, spikor, roboto, trapjaw...) so it's nice 2 have a little symmetry, especially because rio blast was ahead of his time. this new arm cannon takes away the cool factor of this:

PoP Figures have to be based on the Vintage toys! This is NOT Filmation's Masters Of The Universe Classics MySpaceCustom Blog

The 4Horsemen were very inspired when sculpting that character. It's an awesome rendition of the 80's character.

I know that a lot of people will disagree with this but I think the blaster arm was unecessary. RB would had been perfect in my book if it wasn't for that blaster. That make him look similar to another heroic cyborg, Roboto.

I'm Skeletor, master of evil! All of you should show respect for the awful one.

I love him! among the all new designs shown on SDCC this year ("all new" => so not taking Kobra Khan, Evil-Lyn and Randor into account) he's definitely my fave! Never was much of a fan of this character - well, after this redesign I'm sure the 4HM actually could make me like every single MotU-character there is, maybe even the Meteorbs... Only about Gwildor I'm not so sure, but after all they don't even like him themselves...
I prefer him with the blaster-arm to holding two guns, one in each hand - it's more MotU... and I love cyborgs...

I suppose it's far too late now for the 4H to make any adjustments to YMCA-Blast? The more I look at the guy, the more I dislike him: The butt chin, the revolver arm, the crew cut, the half-a-head of tinplate making him look like a Terminator..

It's just ... 100% not the character I loved as a child. Apart from the chaps I don't see anything that resembles the quickdrawin' shaggy-haired critter I loved so much in the 80s. Oh and one more thing.. CHEST GUN, dagnabbit!

I realise this particular wave of stactions will still be economically viable but it seems there may arguably be a few less sales based on people's discontent with the overall design of the figure. Yes, it can't be reflected when people buy the series together but perhaps in stores where sold seperately he might turn into the new peg warmer - much like Clamp Champ was (and still is). This leads to a suggestion:

Look at the 4H's pet project - The Seventh Kingdom. It was made at the whim of the fans who genuinely wanted to buy the figure exactly as they saw fit. The result being that the Horsemen listened to what we wanted to buy from them and molded/adjusted/painted/created things accordingly. The end result was that they were a MAJOR success because people got 100% of what they wanted to see.
Yes I know that these were a miniscule run compared to the (comparatively) much larger production of stactions via NECA. However you'd also do well do recall that these current stactions fit into a rather niche market themselves - and the fan base found here on the Org would make up a large slice of the market share, I'd like to believe. My point is that perhaps the stactions would sell a lot more successfully if the 4H even partially adjusted character design according to customer suggestion/input and request.
I know I for one would've bought a double of Clamp Champ if they removed that bling-bling "CC" from his belt and gave him a Black Belt Jones style afro like in the mini-comics. I also can't help thinking that Rio Blast would fair better had there been a bit of pre-consultation with the Org community before presenting the final product.

Ultimately it's a calculated risk at best when we're having people tinker with our precious nostaliga. Having to wait until everything's done before we even see so much as a photo of the finished product seems like a risky business practice in an already limited consumer base. With customer input I really feel the stactions would sell a lot more. Whether this type of consolidation be in the form of an Org poll or what-have-you I cannot say, but even if there was ANYTHING that allowed us to make comment before ultimately having to just wait and buy whatever's served to us seems a better idea than current practices.

discosupafly, I'm personally glad Clamp Champ didn't have that afro. But I'm curious, would you have bought two of him if fans had voted for stuff you didn't like? Judging from the main poll, most fans like Rio Blast well enough even with the short hair (are we sure it's not tied behind his neck) and MAA-features. So maybe fans wouldn't vote for all these changes. Sure we all have our personal nitpicks about this or that on one or more of the stactions, but I don't think the Horsemen should be forced to check with us to see if they got the little things right. I sure wouldn't want to have to wait 6 to 10 more months while they stop to take our modifications about hair and expressions into account. I think they've been getting the important things right.

Sure we all have our personal nitpicks about this or that on one or more of the stactions, but I don't think the Horsemen should be forced to check with us to see if they got the little things right. I sure wouldn't want to have to wait 6 to 10 more months while they stop to take our modifications about hair and expressions into account. I think they've been getting the important things right.

Yes, that's also very true. I guess that no matter what, someone out there won't like something about something..

Pity though - because Rio Blast was such a favourite back in the day for me, and this staction is something that - IMO, looks very little to nothing like what I loved, so I won't be getting it.

The shaggy hair looks great on that photoshopped Rio pic! I think that's one of the coolest things about the 2002 He-Man action figure... his messy hair. It looks great on the bust, and even cooler on the Snake Armor He-Man figure.
I don't dislike Rio as the Horsemen have done him, but the messy hair look is more appealing to me.